Spelling Mistakes, Philology, and Feminist Criticism: Women and Boys in Tibetan Medicine

Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines Number 14, October 200

The Legacy of Bla ma dkar po: An Unsettled Dispute between Chone and Labrang on the Inner Asian Frontier

From the 1860s to the 1890s, Bla ma dkar po, a Chone Tibetan lama rose to power in Xinjiang and became a major participant in the late Qing Inner Asian politics. With the support of Beijing, Lhasa, Mongol patrons and local tsho ba, the lama established a university monastery in his hometown, where was caught between Chone and Labrang in eastern Mdo smad. After he died of illness, the Qing court recognized him as a reincarnated ho thog thuin Dzungaria. Chone and Labrang contested for his spiritual and material legacies, competed for controlling his hometown, turned the reincarnation lineage into a local institution, and left the dispute unsettled up to the present. This article uses this case to examine the complex relations between Tibetan regional powers and local societiesin Mdo smad. It elaborates how the “long-term unsettling” became a solution for such a covert dispute. བླ་མ་དཀར་པོའི་གནའ་རྫས།ཡ་གླིང་ནང་མའི་མཐའ་མཚམས་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་ཅོ་ནེ་དང་བླ་བྲང་བར་གྱི་ཡུན་རིང་ཐག་གཅོད་མ་བྱས་པའི་རྩོད་གཞི། སྤྱི་ལོ༡༨༦༠-༡༨༩༠ལོའི་བར།བླ་མ་དཀར་པོ་ནི་ཅོ་ནེའི་བོད་རིགས་ཀྱི་བླ་མ་ཤིན་ཅང་ས་ཆ་ནས་དབང་ཐང་རྒྱས་པར་མ་ཟད།ཆིང་རྒྱལ་རབས་ཀྱི་དུས་མཇུག་དུ་ཡ་གླིང་ནང་ཁུལ་གྱི་ཆབ་སྲིད་དུ་ཞུགས་མཁན་གཙོ་བོ་ཞིག་ཡིན།པེ་ཅིན།ལྷ་ས།སོག་པོ་བཅས་ཀྱི་སྤྱིན་བདག་དང་ས་གནས་དེའི་ཚོ་བའི་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས།བླ་མ་འདིའི་ཕ་ཡུལ།ཨ་མདོའི་ཤར་ཕྱོགས།ཅོ་ནེ་དང་བླ་བྲང་ས་ཆའི་བར་ནས་དགོན་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་འཛུགས་བསྐྲུན་མཛད།ཁོང་རང་སྐུ་མྱངས་ནས་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་བའི་རྗེས་སུ།ཆིང་སྲིད་གཞུང་གིས་ཁོ་རང་ཇིང་གུར་གྱི་ཡང་སྲིད་ཧོ་ཐོག་ཐུའི་ཆོ་ལོ་སྩལ།ཅོ་ནེ་དང་བླ་བྲང་བར་ཁོང་རང་གི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་དང་དངོས་པོའི་ཤུལ་བཞག་འགྲན་རྩོད་བྱུང་ནས།ཁོང་རང་གི་ཕ་ཡུལ་གྱིས་བརྩོན་ལེན་བྱེད་པར་ཚོད་འཛིན་བྱས།དེ་ནས་གདུང་རྒྱུད་འཛིན་པའི་གདུང་རབས་ཏེ་ས་གནས་ཀྱི་ལམ་ལུགས་སུ་འགྱུར།དེར་མ་ཟད་རྩོད་གཞི་འདི་ད་ལྟའི་བར་དུ་ཤུལ་ལུས་ཐག་གཅོད་མ་བྱས།རྩོམ་ཡིག་འདིར་ཨ་མདོའི་བོད་རིགས་ཀྱི་ས་ཁོངས་དབང་ཆ་དང་ས་གནས་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་བར་གྱི་རྙོག་འཛིང་གི་འབྲེལ་བ་དཔེ་མཚོན་དུ་བཟུང་ནས་བརྟག་ཞིབ་བྱས་ཡོད།ཁོ་བོས་“ཡུན་རིང་ཐག་གཅོད་མ་བྱས་པ”ཅི་ལྟར་འདི་འདྲའི་སྦས་བའི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་རྩོད་གཞི་ཅག་གཅོད་བྱེད་ཐབས་ཞིབ་བརྗོད་བྱས་ཡོད། བརྡ་ཆད་གཙོ་བོ།  བླ་མ་དཀར་པོ། ཅོ་ནེ། བླ་བྲང་། ཚོ་བ། གདུང་རྒྱུད་ལམ་ལུགས། ཡ་གླིང་ནང་མ

Death and the Self

It is an old philosophical idea that if the future self is literally different from the current self, one should be less concerned with the death of the future self (Parfit, 1984). This paper examines the relation between attitudes about death and the self among Hindus, Westerners, and three Buddhist populations (Lay Tibetan, Lay Bhutanese, and monastic Tibetans). Compared with other groups, monastic Tibetans gave particularly strong denials of the continuity of self, across several measures. We predicted that the denial of self would be associated with a lower fear of death and greater generosity toward others. To our surprise, we found the opposite. Monastic Tibetan Buddhists showed significantly greater fear of death than any other group. The monastics were also less generous than any other group about the prospect of giving up a slightly longer life in order to extend the life of another

Boundary Crossing by a Community of Practice: Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries Engage Science Education

As a globalized world struggles with division and disinformation, engaging across difference has emerged as a major challenge to communication and collaborative action needed to address growing global challenges. As such, the initiative by Tibetan Buddhist leaders to incorporate western science in curricula for monastic education may serve as an important case study that illuminates the conditions and processes at work in genuine cultural outreach and exchange. That project, spearheaded in the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI), involves reaching out across two quite different communities of practice, Tibetan Buddhism and science, and the willingness and ability of individuals to cross the boundaries between them. In the study reported here, we apply existing understandings of communities of practice and of learning mechanisms that mediate boundary crossing to probe for presence of conditions and processes that promote effective outreach among Tibetan Buddhist monastic students. We deploy analysis of qualitative survey, interview, and self-report data from monastic students shortly after ETSI began (2009) and after science education had been rolled out in the monasteries (2019) to, first, identify initial cultural conditions related to outreach and engagement with science, and, second, probe for post-rollout presence of boundary crossing learning mechanisms among monastic students which facilitate communication from one community of practice to another. We found a range of robust initial cultural conditions (e.g., perceived overlap in subjects and methods of inquiry), along with strong presence of mechanisms that facilitate boundary crossing (e.g., reflection, transformation) and operate through time. We observed cascading effects of these conditions and mechanisms on student engagement with science. Furthermore, interactions of these conditions and mechanisms allow monastic students to engage with science on their own Buddhist terms and to regard learning science as potentially beneficial rather than threatening to their personal or collective Buddhist goals

Emory-Tibet Science Initiative: Changes in Monastic Science Learning Motivation and Engagement During a Six-Year Curriculum

Led by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the initiative taken by the Tibetan Buddhist monastic community to connect with western science and scientists presents a unique opportunity to understand the motivations and engagement behaviors that contribute to monastic science learning. In this study, we draw on quantitative data from two distinct surveys that track motivations and engagement behaviors related to science education among monastic students. The first survey was administered at one monastic university in 2018, and the second follow-up survey was completed by students at two monastic universities in 2019. These surveys assessed the reception of science education related to motivations among monastics and their demonstration of engagement-with-science behaviors. We also tested for variation over time by surveying students in all years of the science curriculum. We identified that monastic students are motivated by their perception that studying science has an overall positive effect and benefits their Buddhist studies, rather than negatively affecting their personal or collective Buddhist goals. In accordance with this finding, monastics behave in ways that encourage fellow scholars to engage with science concepts. Survey responses were disaggregated by years of science study and indicated changes in motivation and engagement during the six-year science curriculum. These insights support the relevance of considering motivation and engagement in a novel educational setting and inform ongoing work to expand the inclusiveness of science education. Our findings provide direction for future avenues of enhancing exchange of knowledge and practice between Buddhism and science

Boundary Crossing by a Community of Practice: Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries Engage Science Education

As a globalized world struggles with division and disinformation, engaging across difference has emerged as a major challenge to communication and collaborative action needed to address growing global challenges. As such, the initiative by Tibetan Buddhist leaders to incorporate western science in curricula for monastic education may serve as an important case study that illuminates the conditions and processes at work in genuine cultural outreach and exchange. That project, spearheaded in the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI), involves reaching out across two quite different communities of practice, Tibetan Buddhism and science, and the willingness and ability of individuals to cross the boundaries between them. In the study reported here, we apply existing understandings of communities of practice and of learning mechanisms that mediate boundary crossing to probe for presence of conditions and processes that promote effective outreach among Tibetan Buddhist monastic students. We deploy analysis of qualitative survey, interview, and self-report data from monastic students shortly after ETSI began (2009) and after science education had been rolled out in the monasteries (2019) to, first, identify initial cultural conditions related to outreach and engagement with science, and, second, probe for post-rollout presence of boundary crossing learning mechanisms among monastic students which facilitate communication from one community of practice to another. We found a range of robust initial cultural conditions (e.g., perceived overlap in subjects and methods of inquiry), along with strong presence of mechanisms that facilitate boundary crossing (e.g., reflection, transformation) and operate through time. We observed cascading effects of these conditions and mechanisms on student engagement with science. Furthermore, interactions of these conditions and mechanisms allow monastic students to engage with science on their own Buddhist terms and to regard learning science as potentially beneficial rather than threatening to their personal or collective Buddhist goals

Is mindfulness Buddhist? (and why it matters).

Modern exponents of mindfulness meditation promote the therapeutic effects of "bare attention"--a sort of non-judgmental, non-discursive attending to the moment-to-moment flow of consciousness. This approach to Buddhist meditation can be traced to Burmese Buddhist reform movements of the first half of the 20th century, and is arguably at odds with more traditional Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and meditative practices. But the cultivation of present-centered awareness is not without precedent in Buddhist history; similar innovations arose in medieval Chinese Zen (Chan) and Tibetan Dzogchen. These movements have several things in common. In each case the reforms were, in part, attempts to render Buddhist practice and insight accessible to laypersons unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy and/or unwilling to adopt a renunciatory lifestyle. In addition, these movements all promised astonishingly quick results. And finally, the innovations in practice were met with suspicion and criticism from traditional Buddhist quarters. Those interested in the therapeutic effects of mindfulness and bare attention are often not aware of the existence, much less the content, of the controversies surrounding these practices in Asian Buddhist history

Inter-brain synchronization in the practice of Tibetan monastic debate

Objectives: Although mindfulness meditation is the familiar and researched form of mental training derived from Buddhism, it represents but one form of practice. Monastic debate is an interactive and dyadic analytical meditation practice that originates from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition where monastics seek to jointly deepen their understanding of complicated philosophical issues. To date, monastic debate and analytic meditation have yet to be examined in the context of scientific investigation. Methods: In the current study, we examined the neural correlates of this analytical meditation practice by means of hyperscanning electroencephalography, a method well-suited for examining social interactions. Results: Consistent with the idea that analytical meditation helps to train concentration, we observed that over the course of the debate, mid-frontal theta oscillations—a correlate of absorption—increased significantly. This increase was stronger for more experienced monks as compared with monks at the beginning of their education. In addition, we found evidence for increases in synchrony in frontal alpha oscillations between paired debaters during moments of agreement as compared with disagreement on a set of premises. Conclusions: Together, these findings provide an initial understanding of Tibetan monastic debate and analytical meditation using neuroscientific methods